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Monday, April 7, 2014

Book Review: Iggy Peck, Architect

"When Iggy was three, his parents could see

his unusual passion would stay.

He built churches and chapels from peaches and apples,

and temples from modeling clay."

I LOVE "Rosie Revere, Engineer" and so do my children, ages 4 and 2. The rhyming is excellent, the story of an aspiring engineer wonderful and the moral of the story is something to hang on to no matter your professional pursuits. So I had high expectations for "Iggy Peck, Architect" and was less impressed. Here are the good and the bad, as I see them:

The best part of this book is the rhyming. Every verse is like the quotation, above. There are rhymes nested within rhymes, which makes it fun to read. The pictures are consistent with Rosie's story and my children are delighted to see Rosie in Iggy's story and Iggy, and his buildings (look for the Sphinx), in Rosie's story. The idea of finding an appropriate outlet for fostering strengths and interests in young children is also a wonderful topic in this book. But the storyline is a little clunky...

The teacher is the antagonist in "Iggy" and, especially compared to Aunt Rose's role in "Rosie," she gets too much press. I think it took too long to tell "Miss Lila Greer's" background. It makes the story a little awkward and clunky where "Rosie" was more streamlined. (My husband says that I might be being nit-picky about Miss Lila's back-story; he says the author to her time to tell the story well.)

The other thing that irks me is that Iggy's interests in the book are pretty solidly in designing and building buildings. However, to save his class from certain doom he builds a bridge. I am not an architect. Maybe it isn't a HUGE stretch from buildings to bridges. So you tell me -- are there any architects out there that want to chime in on "Iggy Peck"?

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About Me

I am an advocate for children to be playful independent STEAM learners and a big part of that is encouraging adults to be playful independent STEAM learners alongside their young children. I have been happily married to my husband Mike for 14 years and currently stay at home to raise our children, Mikey and Anna. As a family, we play at parks and children’s museums, go tent camping, and explore the world. On my own, I read, run, practice yoga, and ruminate over all things beautiful and/or interesting.